About goHappy

Our mission is to help people build good relationships so that they can live happier lives.

Our Story

Good relationships are the single biggest driver of our happiness, and we need a place to keep up with those relationships when we can’t be together. However, for a growing percentage of us, current social media often causes us to feel more disconnected from those family and close friends. We need a place that helps us feel more connected and fuels our important relationships.

In January of 2005 and five years into his first start-up, Shawn Boyer (founder and CEO) realized his life was totally out of balance - one dimensional and all work. This problem started a journey of trying to be as intentional about the other areas of life beyond work - especially relationships.

Today, after many discovery sessions, prototypes, and ideations, goHappy has helped thousands of people around the world authentically share life with family and friends, and nurture those incredibly important relationships.

Although we create digital products, our hope is that we’re doing so to enhance the quality of your life outside of the device in your hands. We believe that happiness is largely built on good relationships, and we sincerely hope we can help you facilitate building yours - away from the noise of social media and the chaos of group messaging.

Principles

Things We Do

Foster authentic sharing

Promote a sense of calmness

Protect your privacy 100%

Help you share life with the people who make you happy and who love seeing the things you share

Provide a platform to share and be thoughtful, helpful and considerate

Focus on “Engagement”. But, we only want you to engage with goHappy when it’s because you want to be engaged with your people and it’s helpful to you. You have complete control over how frequently and when you get notifications, and we’ve set them up so that you get them only for the most important updates in real time

Things We Don't Do

Serve advertisements

Sell your personal data to advertisers and other third parties

Insert stuff into “Your Feed”. The only thing that goes in your “feed” is what your family and friends are sharing with you; we intentionally do not have an algorithm that influences what shows up there

Manipulate your behavior with gamification techniques. For example, we don’t keep track of “chat streaks with someone in the app”; but if you want, you can keep track of streaks of things you’re doing with your favorite people in real life!

Provide a forum to bash people and make cynical remarks

Make you feel judged, jealous or angry

The Team

Shawn Boyer‍Founder and CEO‍Founder and former CEO of Snagajob from 2000-2013, Shawn grew that company to 50m+ users and 250k employers; 8x Great Place to Work company and 5x Deloitte Fast 500. goHappy fuels his passion for nurturing meaningful relationships. Shawn loves being a husband and a dad of three awesome kids and doing anything fitness related so he doesn't feel as guilty making and drinking fun cocktails. Learn more about Shawn on Linkedin.

Dan AllowayEngineer‍Dan is a full-stack software engineer, code-wrangler, and full-time problem-solver. goHappy fuels his passion to make the world a better place through caring conversations. Dan hikes and bikes the seven hills of Richmond, Virginia and savors the exotic cocktails Shawn serves up (see above). Learn more about Dan on Linkedin.

Dan GritskoEngineer‍Dan is a full-stack software engineer with a particular love for building systems that are reliable, fast, and scalable. goHappy fuels his passion for staying close with all of his family, both near and far. In his spare time, Dan enjoys reading, cooking, designing goofy video games, and rooting for the Buffalo Bills. Learn more about Dan on Linkedin.

Nick JesterProduct Manager‍10+ years of product experience helping to build products that hopefully help make people's lives a little better. goHappy fuels his passion for helping people connect on a deeper level and also change some bad social media habits. Nick spends free time practicing to be a contestant on a father/daughter episode of Chopped, watching Star Wars with his son, finding the next series to binge with his wife, and reliving soccer glories of yesteryear. Learn more about Nick on Linkedin.

Tom IllmenseeDesigner‍With nearly 20 years in user experience design, Tom has collaborated with cross-functional teams to solve complex problems for many different types of people. goHappy fuels his passion for community-building, communication and improvisation. Tom also plays guitar entirely too loud and runs every day. Learn more about Tom on Linkedin.